Nailers Week In Review

It is a slow week ahead for the Wheeling Nailers, who are in the midst of playing just one game in the span of ten days. The Nailers are coming off of an 0-2-1 week, that saw them fall 4-3 in overtime to Reading on Wednesday, before 5-2 and 5-3 setbacks to Toledo on Friday and Saturday. Cody Chupp lit the lamp in each of the three games last week, and now has five goals in his last five games. However, he left due to injury late in Saturday night’s contest. Stefan Chaput had two assists on Wednesday and a goal on Saturday, giving him points in six of his last eight games. Chupp and Cody Wild both netted power play goals on Saturday, putting an end to a four-game drought in that category.

This week’s lone battle takes place on Saturday night, when the Nailers visit the Toledo Walleye at Huntington Center. Saturday’s game will be Wheeling’s 13th of the season, but eighth against either Reading or Toledo. The Nailers took the season series opener against the Walleye 3-2 in a shootout on November 1st, but have come up empty in the two most recent tilts, giving Toledo a 2-1 edge in head-to-head meetings.

While the Nailers will have been off since the head-to-head matchup the previous Saturday, Toledo will have played two games in the meantime. The Walleye were edged 2-1 by the South Carolina Stingrays on Sunday, thanks to a 44-save performance by Shawn Hunwick. They will take the ice again on Friday, when they visit the Fort Wayne Komets. Toledo enters the week with a mark of 6-6-0-1, which is good for 13 points, placing them fourth in the ultra-competitive North Division, and tied for eighth in the Eastern Conference. Willie Coetzee and Andrej Nestrasil have both reached double digits in points (Coetzee 11, Nestrasil 10), but both trail Luke Glendening in the goal department (6). Jordan Pearce has backstopped both of Toledo’s most recent victories, before Kent Simpson took Sunday’s defeat.